Some might have considered the setting grim. But because the company promised to be good, more than 250 business people showed up for cocktails and shop talk in a rose garden fronting the main chapel at Melrose Abbey Mortuary in Anaheim.

The tree-lined garden is where relatives and friends converge to mourn the loss of a loved one. But on this quiet Thursday evening in late May, it had been reserved for the monthly mixer of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Orange County.

"In meeting there, we're not saying that we're a dead or dying organization," said Alfredo M. Amezcua, a Santa Ana lawyer. "We wanted to show that we're not picky about where we meet, and we do not discriminate so long as they support the chamber's goals of developing the Hispanic business community."

Indeed, his organization is far from dead. In fact, as the newly elected president of the 3-year-old trade group, Amezcua is the head of one of the fastest-growing nonprofit organizations in Orange County.

When it began, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Orange County had fewer than 25 members and was not seen as a key player in the county's economic development. Today, the chamber has approximately 500 members, among them some of Orange County's largest corporations and most respected entrepreneurs--people such as Fernando Niebla, who owns one of the largest minority-owned, high-tech manufacturing concerns in the nation. Lately, the chamber has taken on a new importance as talks on a U.S.-Mexico Free Trade Agreement appear to be moving ahead.

Even Washington acknowledges the growing importance of the group. When President Bush visited Orange County in April to meet with the prime minister of Japan, he also met with Southland Latino business leaders--one of whom was a chamber member, to drum up support for the pact.

Amezcua's (his name is pronounced ah-MEZ-qua) goal is to double the chamber's membership by the end of 1992.

Last month, the U.S. Census Bureau released figures showing that the number of Latino-owned businesses in Orange County grew by 82%, to 9,683 between 1982 and 1987. Those figures ranked Orange County the sixth-largest center for Latino business in the nation.

Amezcua plans to tap the chamber's wealth of market information--which includes the buying habits and customs of the county's 564,828 Latinos--to use in persuading more corporations to become sponsors. With more corporate support for the chamber, Amezcua says, he believes his group can create more ambitious programs for Latinos who own small businesses in the county.